The Klamath-Siskiyou Region

The Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion of southwestern Oregon and northwestern California is a world renowned hub of biological diversity. The mountain ranges and river valleys that define this region are some of the most spectacular in America.

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Craggy Peak and the headwaters of Sucker Creek are found in the nearly 100,000-acre Kangaroo Roadless Area that surround the Red Buttes Wilderness on the Oregon-California border. Photo by Barbara Ullian

Covering nearly 10 million acres, the KS stretches from the Umpqua in
the north to California's wine country in the south, from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the mighty Cascade Mountains in the east. Ranging
in elevation from sea level to its highest peak, Mt Ashland, at 7,533
feet, the area is rugged and beautiful. More than
half of the region is public land.

Complex Natural History

Amongst a tangle of sharp-edged mountains and salmon-strewn rivers,
geologists often refer to the ancient KS mountains as, "The Klamath
Knot." For all its great antiquity, the KS has never been subject to
volcanism and glaciation like the neighboring Cascade and Sierra
Mountains. Rather the KS is a result of rocks under heat and pressure
folding through time. To illustrate, the Kalmiopsis leachiana is a flower that once grew on an island in the Pacific ocean, and can
now be found growing on top of mountains in southwest Oregon. Added to
the mix is the fact the region largely remained unglaciated during the
last Ice Age when most of the continent was under ice, therefore acting
a refuge for plants and animals. Additionally, the area is the
confluence of various habitat types, sharing species from the Great
Basin, Cascades, Coastal Range, California's Central Valley and the
Sierra Nevada. The region's history with fire has also contributed to a
rich landscape that changes at most every turn. The KS mountains and
valleys offer a complex mosaic of habitats, allowing diverse species to
mingle and create unique communities. On the eastside of the region one
can find ancient, gnarled western juniper trees, whereas on the
westside one can find soggy coastal redwood rainforests.

Clear Waters

Clear Creek flows into the Klamath River on the southside of the Siskiyou Crest

The region is largely defined by the mighty Rogue watershed in the
north and the famous Klamath watershed in the south. These two epic
rivers are separated by the rugged Siskiyou Crest Mountain Range that
traverses the stateline. These river systems support wild
populations of salmon and steelhead and are refugia for salmon
populations in the lower 48. These rivers, and their famous tributaries
such as the Illinois and Salmon Rivers, attract people from around the
world to enjoy the whitewater, fisheries and gorgeous scenery.

Plants

The
region has a very diverse mosaic landscape, including mixed evergreen
and subalpine forests, serpentine vegetation, redwood forest, oak
woodlands, savannahs and meadows. The KS supports 36 different species
of conifers, more than any other temperate
forest in the world. Endemic conifers include the Port-Orford cedar and
Brewer's or Weeping spruce. Many conifers live here at the edge of
their range, such as Englemann spruce and Alaska yellow cedar. The
reigon is also well-known for its vast array of unusual and endemic
flowering plants (endemic means that a species exists in this one
location and nowhere else on the planet). An estimated 3,500 vascular
plant species can be found here, 280 of which are endemic. Rare plants
inlcude the Cobra lily, Mt. Ashland lupine, Henderson's horkelia,
lavendar paintbrush, Yreka phlox and Gentner's fritillaria.

Wildlife

The forests are home to abundant
wildlife - deer, elk, black bears, mountain lions, spotted owls, and
rare amphibians such as the Siskiyou Mountain and Scott Bar
salamanders. Many species are dependent on uncut forest, abundant
road free wildlands and healthy watersheds for their survival, such as
the Pacific fisher and wolverine. Several species have been
extirpated from the region, including the grey wolf, grizzly bear, lynx
and pronghorn.

Wildlands

The Siskiyou Crest looking west from the McDonald Peak Roadless Area.

Much of the area is protected only by its remoteness and rugged
terrain. The Yolla Bolly, Marble Mountain,
Trinity Alps, Russian, Siskiyou, Red Butte and Kalmiopsis are protected Wilderness Areas (although some mining and
cattle grazing is permitted). High
quality habitat connecting these core areas are under ongoing threats
from logging, mining, road-building, invasive weeds and cattle grazing.
These core areas, and the roadless and old-growth habitat between them, create the
largest complex of wildlands on the West Coast of America.

Global Recognition

The Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion is considered a global center of
biodiversity (Wallace 1982), an IUCN Area of Global Botanical
Significance (1 of 7 in North America), and is proposed as a World
Heritage Site and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (Vance-Borland et al. 1995).

Fire Suppression

Natural fire cycles were key contributors to the diversity of the
Klamath Siskiyou area for millennia. Returning every 10-150 years,
fires recycle nutrients, maintain diversity, renew fire-dependent
species and leave burned out trees critical for wildlife.

KS Wild monitors approximately 5 million acres of public
land that compose the Rogue and Klamath River watersheds, which are
separated by the Siskiyou Crest and South Cascade mountain ranges.
These public lands are the Rogue River/Siskiyou, Klamath and Six Rivers
National Forests and the Medford and Klamath Districts of the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM). Click here to see a map of federal management in the region.

KS Wild is working to permanently protect the remaining roadless
and high quality
habitat in the region while encouraging a shift in public lands
management from unsustainable logging to restoration efforts and small
diameter thinning.